Best 112 quotes of Claire Danes on MyQuotes

Acting is a humiliating job, from start to finish.

Acting is the greatest answer to my loneliness that I have found.

Anybody who knows how to make a good movie, knows that it's a collaborative undertaking. To deny that its really dangerous.

Any story is better with a little love in it, right?

As a young performer, I didn't know that you can have a great time playing someone in terrible crisis. The more you know it's not real, the deeper you can go into it. And the easier it is to let it go when it's done.

At every stage in life you think about death. But teenagers especially are sort of invincible. They're not supposed to be thinking about dying yet, or else they'd be too afraid to live.

Autism does exist on a spectrum, and there are so many manifestations of it, so many kinds of expressions of it. And every case is particular.

But I don't know if people are meant to be together. You have to have a lot in common, choose well and be really fortunate. It's not like you're sprinkled with fairy dust. You have to believe that love will be there when you need it.

By the time I went to Yale, I'd been acting for a long time and I was really tired of it. I was restless - and a little bored - and I was really eager to investigate different parts of myself.

College was just so essential for my sense of self and my development.

Counterterrorism isn't really about the nunchakus, the guns and gadgets. It's about psychology.

Every three seconds in the developing world, a child dies needlessly due to lack of basic health care and other things we all take for granted.

Fame doesn't end loneliness.

Find as many opportunities as you can and clock as many hours as you can.

Growing up in New York City, I was always encouraged to question authority, and I think I confused patriotism with jingoism.

Growing up in New York with artist parents - a very liberal environment, where we were always encouraged to challenge the status quo - I think for a long time I confused jingoism with patriotism. And that is a mistake.

Growing up, I wanted desperately to please, to be a good girl.

However, I'm at a very comfortable place in my career and celebrity, in that I don't have to audition as extensively as I used to for roles but yet I'm not immediately recognizable.

Huge events take place on this earth every day. Earthquakes, hurricanes, even glaciers move. So why couldn't he just look at me?

I actually haven't been approached a whole lot for television, believe it or not.

I am a feminist. And I'm so glad that Lena Dunham exists, because she is one too, and she's quite vocal about it. Yes, women have more freedom and more influence than ever, but it's hardly equal. It's just not.

I became very successful at a young age... I had lots of opportunities and lots of power and had no idea how to focus it.

I could truly have gone through life thinking that women were these venomous creatures. Turns out, they're not.

I discovered Christopher Isherwood in college. His writing style is so direct, warm, and inclusive.

I discovered Orson Welles in college; my freshman English professor screened 'Citizen Kane' for us, and I wound up writing a 20-page term paper on it.

I do know how to fire a machine gun, so be warned! I'm trained!

I don't know any celebrated people that register in a big way who aren't unique.

I don't think I have ever been as inspired by any character that I have played. I was deeply moved by Temple's courage and her resourcefulness.. She is really pioneering in both the world of autism and animal rights. She has encouraged an incredibly positive change in the world.

I don't want to be coy. It's so important for me to be as genuine as possible, so I don't want to stop when it comes to rendering sex the way that most people have it, which is unclothed.

I fantasized about being a psychology major when I first started school, and I took a handful of Psych 101 classes.

If I hadn't been an actress, I was thinking seriously about going into psychology. It's just really what I'm interested in: the human psyche and how we process information.

I finally realized that yeah I did want to be an actor and it wasn't out of habit, but I needed to grow up for myself and then kind of re-enter the industry with a sound understanding of what my sensibilities and my values are as a relatively formed human being.

If you do something that you're not genuinely passionate about, it is a little soul-crushing. Just not worth it.

I get a little jealous of these actor boys. They walk into a club, and in two seconds flat there are swarms of girls who are wanting so badly to touch them or just say hello. That's not the case with me, or any other girl I know.

I got an agent when I was 12, and I started working in more amateur productions well before that. But even as a kid, I never felt like a kid actor, you know? I always took myself kind of absurdly seriously.

I guess I stopped acting when I was 18 and didn't pick it up again until I was 21. That wasn't the plan, though. When I first started at Yale, the plan was to do a movie each summer.

I hadn't been free from adult responsibilities since I was 12, and I needed to experience that. I really needed to just be a kid again.

I have a huge, active imagination, and I think I'm really scared of being alone; because if I'm left to my own devices, I'll just turn into a madwoman.

I have this home in New York, I have a long-term relationship with my boyfriend, who's from Australia, and I had this business that I had maintain. Even though I wasn't actively shooting, there's a lot of peripheral work.

I have to expose myself and then accept the judgment that audiences and critics will have. And that's okay. I appreciate the elliptical nature of it. Sometimes people are more in the mood to be nice to me than others, and that's great.

I have to say that my dad's face is very malleable. He's barely got any cartilage in his face. I think I maybe inherited that Play-Doh-like physicality from him.

I know, it's true. I've played these tortured teenagers. I can't wait to shed that image.

I like marriage. I feel very secure. It helps when you are in love with the person you are married to.

I like reading novels because it provides insight into human behavior.

I like reading novels because it provides insight into human behavior. I am really interested in feelings and think they are what define us as a species. When you really get it right in acting, it's an act of empathy. You feel less distant from others, and that is really exciting.

I love love and falling in love, but it can get pretty flat real fast.

I love sitting in the makeup trailer and getting my makeup done in 15 minutes as opposed to an hour and a half.

I'm just always learning lines. I've learned to flag the really crucial scenes, and I start figuring them out and committing them to memory as soon as I get them.

I'm only realizing now that I was a child actress because I always took myself so seriously.

I'm so impressed by Jennifer Lawrence and Carey Mulligan. They have this exquisite taste. They are very gifted in their ability to make great choices.